OREANDA-NEWS. October 20, 2014. During the session of the Government,  Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk informed that, “since the beginning of the year Ukraine has spent by 16% less natural gas against similar period last year”.

“If you analyse the period, when the Government began to actively engage in savings of natural gas and the establishment of limits, this is actually from April, the real savings amount over 20%,” he explained.

“This is not enough to easily pass the winter. The steps now being taken by the Government to economize on the consumption of natural gas and to diversify energy sources are crucial to get through the heating season,” the PM stressed. 

According to the Prime Minister, a position of the Cabinet of Ministers concerning the gas issue remains unchanged. He reminded that Ukraine had filed several lawsuits in the Stockholm Arbitration Court. “The first is the core lawsuit against the Russian company Gazprom, where we demand compensation of USD 6 billion and the establishment of a fair price, I underline it, a competitive price. We don’t need any discounts”. 

He continued that presently Ukraine purchases gas from European partners and pays a market price, “that is much lower than the price Russia offered us a year ago”, “We have saved about USD 0.5 billion on purchasing gas from our European partners”.

The Ukrainian side also addressed the court with a request to expedite an interim decision “that would ensure, on the one hand, the establishment of a price, and on the other hand, the deliveries of natural gas”.

There exists another way which is to clinch a deal before the final decision is issued by Stockholm Arbitration Court, “We share a common position with our European partners concerning the basic principles on which the interim agreement on natural gas supplies should be clinched until March 31”.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk added Naftogaz of Ukraine had filed a third lawsuit against the Russian Gazprom to reconsider the transit contract, “The Government has introduced a special European-like and market-based procedure to establish the tariff for transportation of natural gas”.

He accentuated that Ukraine guarantees flawless deliveries, however, “in order to guarantee uninterrupted deliveries of natural gas to our European partners, we need to sign an agreement with European companies only. And we are poised to do it”.

The PM reminded a number of decisions called to upgrade energy sector had been adopted, “Ukrainian energy sector complies with the third energy package, in which we have divided the transportation, storages and trade in natural gas, we believe that based on these principles we should design our transit scheme”.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk promised the Government would announce a public competition to draw investors from Europe and the U.S.A. to jointly reform and exploit the Ukrainian GTS, “Now we started receiving certain propositions from our European partners. After we compile them, Ukraine and the Government will announce a public competition to attract investors from Europe and America to jointly upgrade and exploit the Ukrainian GTS”.